Instant Message
By "Keelah"

One by one, I heard each door creak open. The two spare rooms we had in the house. The storage room. The bathroom. The one that lead up to the attic. And finally, the study- the room I currently was hiding in.

He found me.

Chapter THIRTEEN
The Unlocked Door

Darkness engulfed my whole being, and I prayed it would entirely as I curled among the concealing shadows, hoping that in the process I would be masked as well.

The only source of light that enabled me to see at least the vaguest shapes was a narrow gap between the two slightly ajar doors; giving me viewable access (no matter how murky that view might be) to the rest of the study.

The closet was tiny, and with its walls so near my body, closing in on all sides, I was beginning to feel claustrophobic. My breathing grew ragged and loud as a result of my new found fear of close confinements. I wanted to get out there, but knew couldn't—unless I wanted to run into him.

He was here.

Either he was still outside or now inside the house, he was here, no less than several steps from finding me. I cowered further into the shadows as this thought crossed my mind.

I realized I was shaking –and unlike earlier, it was not merely my hands that shook, but my entire body. It wouldn't stop. I wanted to stop trembling, for the reason that instability would cause me to be careless, and carelessness would make noise. I had to stay silent, stay hidden, at least until help came—which I silently begged that it would. Sasuke better not have dismissed by emergency call as a joke.

Looking through the narrow slit between the closet doors, I scanned the mini-office. The room was empty, of course. I'd locked the doors before retreating in the closet. Still, as I peeked through I couldn't elude the fear of finding someone staring right back at me. I shuddered at the thought, and then rested my gaze upon the door. It was still- and I wished it would remain that way.

Each passing second felt like an hour in this closet. It was hardly silent. Outside, the wind continued to howl and trees continued to batter against the windows- occasionally causing me to jump. Not to mention my not-so-quiet hyperventilation. I shut my eyes and forced down the panic, hoping to somehow calm down as I tried to block out the background noises. It was in the middle of meditation that I heard it; though faint sounds, I knew what they were.

A soft creak. The slow opening of the front door.

As an automatic response, my head snapped up, with ears alert and eyes wide open, straining and dreading in unison to hear for any other resonance. This time, however, I did not hear any more.

Nothing but the loud and rapid thudthud-thudthud of my heart ringing in my ears, deafening me. It seemed there was nothing I could do, no calming lie I could tell myself that would efficiently silence the palpitation. My heart was uncontrollable.

Thudthud-thudthud-thudthud-thudthud…

Thump.

I froze. That was not my heart beat.

Surreptitious footsteps sounded from the living room.

"Sakura…" I gasped at the low, cautious voice that had whispered my name from a distance. A creak was heard from each step of stair, one by one, as whoever it was made his way up the second level of the house- nearing my location inch by inch.

"Anyone here…?"

Recoiling deeper within the closet until my back came in contact with the wall, I shut my eyes again and buried my face in my hands, as though the deed would in some way make me invisible, make me safe and out of this circumstance.

Why hadn't I locked the door, I began to regret. And why hadn't I bothered to pay attention when Dad told me where they were going?! If I made a run for it (which I doubt I had the guts to do) where would I go? Who could I call? I didn't even know if my parents were still in the country, or whether they'd already taken a plane across the world for another one of their company trips.

"Sakura…where are you…?"

My heart skipped a beat. He was on the top of the stairs already. I could tell by the nearness of his voice.

With every step closer, the floorboards creaked beneath his feet–something I wouldn't normally observe, but fretfulness had me jumping from every sound my ears managed to hear. I shifted with restlessness as he made his way down the hall in an ever-so-gradual pace.

I heard the door to my bedroom open, and then a few seconds later, so did the door to the master's bedroom. One by one, I heard each door creak. The two spare rooms we had in the house. The storage room. The bathroom. The entryway that lead to the attic. And finally, the study- the room I was currently in.

From the narrow gap of the closet doors, I watched, afraid, as the doorknob slowly twisted and clicked as the lock did its job. It twisted again as the person on the other side tried once more to open it, and the same thing happened.

"Sakura?"

I flinched, wondering how long it would take for him to break down the door. I cowered with vulnerability.

He found me.

"Hey, you there?" The handle budged. "Open the door."

I couldn't move.

"Sakura?" The lock on the doorknob clinked and clanked. "It's me. It's safe." And suddenly familiarity dawned to me.

"Sakura…?" he tried the door once more, harsher. "Are you there? Open the door. Sakura!" Instantly, I stumbled onto my feet and bolted out of the closet, glad to be free from the wardrobe's tight confinements.

"Open the damn door, Sakura!"

Shortly after the lock was undone and the door swung open, I looked up to find a very anxious Uchiha standing in the entryway. The moment he saw me, relief instantly flooded him, and I could say the same about myself. The sensation came crashing down a little too much and too quickly that I soon felt tears stinging my eyes.

"I thought you were dead or something." Then, observing me form head to toe, Sasuke snidely remarked, "You look worse than dead, though." How sensitive.

My only response, however, was a silent gape, trying but failing to form coherent words while still overwhelmed by the sudden force of relief that had just hit me. Sensing my inability to converse, Sasuke grabbed my shoulders and began shaking me –I don't know what the hell he expected out of that, but it sure wasn't helping. "Snap out of it."

"Did you see anyone?" I asked, my voice unusually raspy.

Sasuke didn't seem to hear me, or, if he did so, had completely ignored my question. He looked up and turned in all directions, his eyes warily scanning every inch of darkness they gazed upon, looking for any sign of an unknown presence hiding beneath the black blanket. After a moment, he muttered, "Come on," and shoved me forward.

Okay, so Sasuke sucks at the whole comforting thing. What's new?

He led me down the wide and curving stairs, its bottom ending just to the side of the living room, and I was still quite shaken by the time he pushed me (and roughly might I add) on one of the couches, as though this wasn't my own home and I didn't know where to sit. Either that or he thought I was mentally handicapped and unable to act on my own; though at the moment, I sort of was, there or thereabouts.

Just after he dumped me on the sofa so quickly like I was a living contagious disease, he ordered, "Stay here." I looked at him with question, to which he responded by explaining, "I'll check the house."

He walked off, and then stopping just at the foot of the stairway, where he must've spotted the long, wooden object leaning against the corner nearby the steps. A baseball bat. It had been my dad's when he used to play.

Reluctance visibly waved over him (something I found rather strange) as took he bat. After a lingering glance at my direction, he disappeared out the back door.

Yet again, I was alone, single handed in the unlit living room. It occurred to me that I should've switched on the lights, or at least made Sasuke do it while he was still here. The control was on the other side of the room, opposite from where I currently sat, but I didn't dare stand up and cross the room on my own.

I fiddled with my fingers, mindlessly picking on the couch's leather covering. Where was Sasuke? He was taking too long. No, wait. I glanced at the wall clock. It was dark, but there was enough light emitted from the moon and through the luminous curtains to tell where the hands pointed. It had only been a minute and a half since he'd gone. But in this state of anxiousness, it felt as though each minute was multiplied by the dozen.

Every furniture cast shadows of its own- altogether forming odd, non-patterned shapes in various sizes. One in the corner by the flat TV and the curtains appeared to form a vague outline of a man, which scared the living crap out of me, despite knowing it was only other shadows randomly adjoined together.

I turned away before the man-like outline got to my head. I was already freaked out enough, thank you very much. The disturbing atmosphere of my surroundings made me regret ever letting Sasuke leave. As a result, I had to endure another torment in the dark; and I never even knew I was afraid of darkness until then.

Alright. Now Sasuke was taking too long. It had been… three minutes since he left. It didn't take that long to search a house, did it?

What if… what if something happened to him? What if someone was actually inside the house, and had hurt Sasuke? Or, worse, what if he hurt me, perhaps even kill me? He could do so, swiftly and silently, and Sasuke would not even suspect a thing.

He'd only see my lifeless body bleeding on the ground with, I don't know, a knife sticking out of my throat perhaps? What if he was right here, right now, in the room with me—merely invisible to my sight? With that thought, I looked around on impulse, and it didn't take long before my gaze landed on the corner where I'd imagined the human-like silhouette. It was still there. Though I knew it was all in my head, I watched it carefully and fearfully as a part of me screamed "Look away, Sakura. Look away."

I stared at the silhouette, in the back of my head expecting it to move, to slowly walk out of its hiding place, revealing him, and then-

"Sakura-"

I shrieked.

Sasuke, who had appeared quite out of nowhere and was now standing a few feet behind me, jumped—literally. "Jesus!" he exclaimed, wholly startled, "Freaking calm down!"

"You scared me!"

With an annoyed eye-roll gesture, he made his way to the kitchen and began rummaging every corner, every dark patch, every possible hideaway. "Are you always home alone like this?"

"My parents are out… somewhere…"

"In some fancy restaurant." Huh? Sasuke noticed my puzzlement and waved a small piece of paper he had in hand, "Found this note on the counter. There's a number here too." Right. A note. I hadn't thought of checking the house for any sort of note- even though that was quite the custom in this family.

As he read the note, Sasuke put no effort into hiding the scowl on his face. With disgust, he stated, "The Hyuuga dinner party."

"You know about that?"

"I know it's a banquet that Neji wasn't invited to, even though it's a family celebration. He didn't even get informed." The brief show of emotion surprised me. It was as though he hated the Hyuuga's for leaving Neji out, and I couldn't formulate any reason as to why he would even care.

He stood up straight before I could ask him and closed the cupboard with a kick. "No one's here."

I shook my head, "That can't be."

"Hey, I checked the whole house, alright? And when I got here, I looked around the yard. Front and back. No one. And it's raining. So there's gotta be footprints on the mud, right? But I saw nothing."

At the mention of rain, it was only then that I noticed the obvious fact that Sasuke was soaked to the skin, wearing a water-down navy blue jacket that seemed more suitable for an early morning in springtime than a stormy night of November. The counter he was leaning against was slowly forming small pools of rainwater dripping from his clothes, and then, looking further up, I noticed his hair. Its characteristic, natural spikes were now flattened by the water, sticking to his face. I couldn't help but take note of how his pale skin complemented with the blackness of his hair.

"He probably left then." I said before getting carried away by my thoughts, "But he was here. I know someone was. I'm sure of it."

He studied me for a moment. Then, quietly, he said, "You're not…making this up, are you?"

"No!" I exploded.

"So he just completely disappeared, without a trace." he concluded with mock. Without giving me enough time to reply, he continued, "You want to know what I think?" No. But I had a feeling he was gonna tell me either way. "I think you just got freaked out. I mean, I can see why. You're alone. It's a big, empty house, in the middle of the night. There's a storm. And… well, you seem like pretty gutless type of girl." I twitched. "So you got scared, and imagined someone breaking in and all that. It's all in your head."

I could tell he was hinting insaneness, but I wasn't insane and I wasn't making it up. He didn't know the fact that the Rogue had actually described the city, streets, the front yard and the porch, and even the make of the stairway –each description too specific and correct to simply be a lucky guess.

"I'm not making it up!" I cried in attempt to make him believe me, though the act itself must persuade him to do otherwise. I was acting quite insane. Calming down, I tried again, this time, in a soft insisting whisper: "I'm not making it up…"

He stared at me, frowning in contemplation, perhaps debating in his mind whether or not I was telling the truth, whether or not I was going mad. After a moment's thought, he growled in irritation. "Why the hell did I come here in the first place?" he muttered under his breath, though I heard it clearly amid the house's silence.

Without thinking, I asked, "Why did you?"

"I don't know." He replied frustrated, more to himself than me. He glared at me, as though it was my fault—well partly it was, but he was the one who chose to come; and to a certain extent, rather heroically. The thought of having my personal knight-in-shining-armor would've been thrilling and romantic, if only it weren't for the fact that that said knight was currently giving me a death-glare. "Why did you call me?"

"I don't know." I replied, mimicking him, when in truth I really didn't.

Edging between the state of fear and panic, and the computer being the closest contacting device to me at that moment, I had clicked the first screen name I spotted when I opened my messenger. I had typed in "Help" before I even realized I was talking to Sasuke. When I did notice though, I hadn't cared much, because, truly, I was desperate.

Don't ask how I forgot all about the phone and nine-one-one, or how I managed to spot Sasuke's name and call for his help when all the while Gaara had been online as well. My actions at that time were based on instincts rather than consciousness, driven by fear; and instincts told me to call on Sasuke.

"Then we're even." Sasuke dismissed, and I didn't argue; the subject was overly awkward to continue anyway.

I shuddered, suddenly chilled as an unexpected wind breezed past me. It reminded me of elderly myths where the coldness was due to the presence of the nonliving. Not that there were any ghosts in my house- or so I believed- but in the darkness of the night and the limited amount of luminosity from the moon, it might as well have been so, since the atmosphere about the house screamed HAUNTED anyway.

"Hey, Sasuke?" I called out, feeling giddy of my current surroundings. I tried reminding myself that it was my own home in the dark and was the same as it was every morning. It was rather hard to convince myself though, when darkness had me surrounded.

The lights in the kitchen had been turned on at some time when Sasuke had been searching through it, but the living room, where I was, was left unlit. Only little amount of light from the other room reached it, giving just enough to create even more shadows. I shivered as the cold whipped around me once more.

"Can you turn on the lights?"

Sasuke looked at me in a strange manner, which soon turned into irritation- I suppose he was still brooding, and his temper still short, about having to be dragged all the way here for absolutely nothing (in his opinion). "You've got legs, haven't you? Use them. What's stopping you?"

"The fact that my limbs are temporarily paralyzed." I said, half-lying. It was the truth, although it wasn't the reason I didn't get up. I glanced at the light switch on the other side of the room, across the several feet of darkness I'd have to cross to get there.

Sasuke caught me looking. "Yeah? Well, I don't think so. I think it's 'cause you're still scared shitless." Regardless of the criticism, he pushed himself up and walked toward the switch, turning it on. In less than a second, the whole room broke out in brightness. I shut my eyes close at the sudden illumination.

I opened them after a while as my eyes adjusted–shuddering in the process as another cold breeze enveloped my body- and found Sasuke frowning at me. He then redirected his attention to a spot not far away to his right.

The curtains over it waved somewhat violently, compelled by the strong winds from outside; it hadn't done that earlier, nor were there winds either.

Suddenly, Sasuke was reaching for the curtain- on which, I realized, I'd imagined the man-like outline out of the shadows. With the lights now turned on, those shadows had faded away, the outline disappearing along with it. Though that relieved me, wariness still clung onto my nerves, and I didn't want Sasuke shoving that curtain open in any way, in the fear of what waited behind it.

Sasuke's hand gripped the fabric, though before I could voice out a protest and stop him, he heaved them aside.

There was nothing, or no one.

Just the sight of a casement window left slightly open. That was where the wind must've been coming from.

Sasuke's frowned deepened at what he saw. "I thought I told you to close all the windows?" He asked, slightly demanding.

"I did." I said defensively, my eyes unable to lift from the opened window which I couldn't remember opening. "But I was in a hurry…"

The moment Sasuke had logged off earlier on that night, in fact only half an hour ago, I'd practically scurried my way about the house in attempt to do everything he said to do. Turn of the lights…close windows… I had done just that in a swift, clumsy manner. I didn't even want to head down anyway, because, if any part of this was true, then the Rogue would've been just outside my front door.

But I followed Sasuke's instructions anyway; I needed to follow something, needed someone to lead me, because at that moment I was unable to lead myself. I made a point of avoiding the door as much as possible, keeping a safe distance away in case someone came barging in uninvited, while I shut all windows and lights.

Within ten seconds, I was stumbling up the stairs to my safer zone- though nowhere really felt safe at that point; I had gone to the study, transformed into my Dad's at-home office, locked the door and hid in a closet filled with stacks of files and binders rather than clothes.

Due to my panic and hurriedness, I must've missed that particular windowsill and left it open –albeit I was sure I'd gone and shut every single one; though I must have missed one, given that there was no other rational explanation.

Sasuke sighed in frustration and closed the window- in the process stopping the cold wind from breaking in, and for that I was slightly thankful. Turning to face me, he leaned against the wall—a habit of his I supposed, you know, the leaning on stuff. As if he couldn't just sit down on the couch that was two feet away from him.

"Close your windows next time, okay?" I nodded at his demand.

And following that, silence.

He made no move to leave. He didn't even appear to have any intention of leaving; but he did seemingly intended to lean against the wall for hours. Yet there was no objection on my side. I needed the company; no matter that it was Sasuke's. I just needed something to distract me from tonight's events- which still had me shivering whenever I recalled the Rogue's messages… or how close he had been to entering my house, if he was even here at all, if anything he ever said was true.

I was beginning to get the notion that he never really was; here, I mean, the Rogue. Maybe all that he said had been a coincidence, in a very specific, correct, freaky way.

Staring at Sasuke proved to be an effective distraction. He was looking to his side, refusing to meet my eye, with his arms crossed on his chest defiantly. A look of petulance was evident on his face, as if he didn't want to be here in the first place, like he was forcefully dragged here- which was ironic, since even though he was forced to be here, and that every part of him probably did not what to be here, he didn't give the impression of leaving anytime soon.

Which was okay. I didn't want him to leave.

Merely the sight of him was interesting. Anyone would've told me to just take a picture, because it would last longer. But a two dimensional picture wouldn't have done justice to how he looked in real-life.

There he was, looking all tough and tall and strong; although slouching, he still looked tall- which made him look strong, making him look tough. It all was chained together. I found it hard to believe that this guy –who I've held personal dislike towards for years- had been kind of like my hero for the night… coming to the rescue… just in time…quickly…here, to me…

I paused, as all of a sudden questions stormed about my brain.

How did he get here so fast?

How did he know where I lived?

And how did he…

"Sasuke?" I said cautiously, peering up through narrowed, doubt-filled eyes. He looked at me. "How did you get inside the house?" I whispered.

"Oh, that." Sasuke shrugged, "You left your door unlocked."

Déjà-vu.

Scratch my second thoughts; the Rogue had been here after all.

Nara Shikamaru

"Where the hell have you been?" the brunette couldn't help but blurt out at the sight of Uchiha.

In his daily life, almost everything passed as uninteresting to Shikamaru; the classes, sessions, counseling, having to deal with dim-witted, twelve-year-old-minded housemates, stupid googly-eyed-and-stupid girls, the ever-so-useless-and-exceedingly-easy homework… Shikamaru's life consisted of the most wearisome things, things that he made a point of tuning out each day.

There were only a few things that caught his attention –one of them being this certain attractive blonde (and, no, it's not Naruto if anyone was wondering)- yet even then, it would only be a short matter of time before he got bored and fell asleep.

However, the sight of Uchiha sneaking into the room and climbing through the window as quietly as possible, dripping wet from head to toe at half past three in the morning, instantly hooked on Shikamaru's curiosity, and there was no chance he'd let this occurrence pass by without knowing the story behind it. It was not everyday the Uchiha Sasuke broke the rigorous rules of this house, and the itch to know what had driven him to do so formed within the Shikamaru.

There was no need for his genius assessment to tell that Sasuke had been out without permission, moreover past the curfew.

Uchiha jumped in surprise, swirling around to find his brunette roommate still awake, and was watching him amusedly with a raised eyebrow. "Be quiet!" he whispered harshly.

"You are so busted." Shikamaru remarked wittily in a normal volume, which seemed to be amplified thrice in the dead silence of the night. He was enjoying this.

Ignoring him, the Uchiha trudged over to his side of the room and began taking out dry clothes from his drawers.

"Do you know what'll happen if Hatake finds out you've been sneaking out?" Shikamaru called out just as Sasuke had reached the bathroom.

Glaring at him, the Uchiha hissed threateningly, "Well, he's not gonna find out, 'cause no one's telling him." And closed the door- not slam, as it would've awoken the others.

Shikamaru waited until Sasuke went out of the washroom. "So where'd you go?" he asked conversationally.

"None of your damn business." Sasuke snapped, and no idiot would've missed the fact that the Uchiha was in a bad, bad mood. Well, except perhaps Naruto. Or Kiba. He was just as thick-headed.

"Yeah. Until I go rat you out on Hatake first thing in the morning. That'd be quite troublesome."

Sasuke glared. "What do you want?"

"Just curious as to where you've been."

Sasuke was silent, as if contemplating whether or not to tell him. Just when Shikamaru thought Sasuke would not answer though, he did.

"Sakura's."

Shikamaru blinked, surprised at Uchiha's sudden bluntness; though more surprised at this unexpected response. So many reasons why he could've been at the pink chick's house, yet Shikamaru didn't know which one to assume.

"She…needed some help." Sasuke explained hesitantly. "And… I guess you can say I gave her a hand."

"Oh. I see." Shikamaru said, although he didn't really. What exactly had Uchiha done in Sakura's house that lasted all night?

As if sensing his thoughts, Sasuke called out, "Nara."

Uchiha gave him a pointed look.

"I didn't sleep with her, if that's what you're wondering, you sick bastard."

"That wasn't what I was thinking."

"Sure." Uchiha said, the syllable hinting clearly that he didn't believe him. As he climbed onto his bed, he called out, "And Nara?"

"What?"

"This never happened. Got it?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Thanks a million for all who reviewed & all who understood my hiatus—each one helped me through the mind-boggling hurricane of studying for my final exams. If only there was another way to express my gratitude than a simple "thank you".

Read, Review and (a million) Thank You!

Enjoying the summer vacay,
"Keelah"